


Crumbling Walls

by NoxDemon



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: AU, Angst, Ben Being a Sarcastic Little Shit, Crying, Diego Is Hurt, Diego Is Sad, Grace is dead, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Sorry, Klaus Being A Good Brother, LIKE A LOT OF ANGST, Panic Attacks, Sad, Sobbing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-13
Updated: 2019-03-28
Packaged: 2019-11-16 16:30:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18097994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoxDemon/pseuds/NoxDemon
Summary: After Cha-Cha and Hazel attack the mansion, they don't kidnap Klaus.Diego turns off mom and has a breakdown in the living room, Klaus is there for him.





	1. First Crack In The Wall

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU where Klaus doesn't get kidnapped by Cha-Cha and Hazel. I hope you enjoy it!

Diego was horrified, what had he just done? How could he have killed his own mother? The only one that he ever actually dared to tell about his feelings, the only one he ever opened up to. And now she was gone. Killed by the one that had loved her more than anything, killed by the son that had seen her as his only real friend. Diego had killed her with his own hands while she didn’t even know what was happening. He’ll always have her blood on his hands, He’d never be able to forgive himself. 

Self-hatred. Diego had always drowned in it, whether it was about always being second, or about just not being able to say what he really wanted. He would always think about how worthless he was, how stupid and how different. How stupidly self-pitying he was. He would never show any of that sadness and hopelessness, though. He couldn’t, not when he was supposed to be the strong and bitter number two. Usually, he could keep it all in, but after what happened with mom he couldn’t keep it in any longer. Thoughts swarmed in his head: if only he had asked dad to let her outside, if only he hadn’t left her all those years ago, if only he had paid more attention, if only, if only, if only….

But it’s too late for that now. It won’t bring her back. She’s gone. 

She’s gone.

Diego stumbles into the living room, unaware of Klaus, who was busy arguing with Ben about whatever the hell he’d been up to. He closes the heavy wooden doors behind him, banging his fist against them, before resting his head on the surface, the first sob escaping from him, the first crack in the solid walls that he keeps up at all costs. He thinks back to the day that Ben died, he had withdrawn into his room to let his emotions take the best of him, Grace came into his room and he had sobbed into her arms, barely comprehensibly telling her that he would protect her with his life and that he would never let another part of his family die. Look how that had worked out. The Grace from his memories is no more. She is now seated upstairs, in front of her favourite paintings, with her arm ripped open.  
A second sob escapes him, and then a third, and then a fourth. He slides down to the floor and wraps his arms shakily around his chest and allows himself to break down, still not noticing Klaus, who is now whispering furiously with Ben.

“What am I supposed to do now?!” Klaus asks Ben, who is seated on the sofa while Klaus himself is pacing frantically.

“Uhm, how about helping him?” Ben responds.

Klaus glares at him “Yeah I know, but what if he doesn’t want my help? He doesn’t even know I’m here!” he points at Diego, who is still seated on the floor with his head in his arms.

“Well, what are you gonna do then? Watch your brother have a mental breakdown in front of you? Great idea Klaus.”

Klaus tugs at his hair “What if he hates me? What if he’s only nice to me because he needs me? What if he’ll hate me even more if I confront him now? Uuuugh, I need some weed.”

“Klaus! Sorry to interrupt your daily spiralling session, but focus on what is happening right now okay? Your brother needs you.” Ben nods at Diego “I think he can use an annoying brother to distract him from whatever is causing this and you’re perfect for that role, to be honest.”

In the meantime Diego’s thoughts are spiralling out of control, unable to get himself out of it. He can only think about how all of the bad things that ever happened are his fault in some way. Hell, even Luther getting sent to the moon is somehow his fault now. Suddenly, he hears someone call his name.

“Diego? Diego, can you hear me? It’s me, Klaus.” Klaus’ hands hover hesitantly over his brother’s shoulders before grabbing them firmly, reassuringly. 

Diego looks up into the blue eyes of his weird little brother, nodding slightly.

Klaus’ heart breaks a little further when he sees the display of utter sadness and despair on his brother’s face. Tear tracks stain Diego’s face and his expressions are more open than Klaus has ever seen them.  
“Diego, are you okay?” 

Next to him Ben practically facepalms. “Dude, really? ‘Are you okay?’ What do you think, genius?” 

Klaus ignores him, focusing on his normally stoic brother, who is acting so out of character. It is starting to worry him. 

Diego finally seems to realise that, yes, Klaus is here and he is here to help him. He falls forward into the lanky arms of his brother and hugs him tightly. “ ‘M fine” he slurs. 

Klaus is surprised by the sudden contact that they almost never have but hugs him back anyway. “Uhm, no you’re certainly not okay De, you’re barely breathing.” 

“C-can you j-just t-t-ta-talk a uhm, a little?” Diego asks in between breaths. His stutter always worsens when he’s emotional, and right now he can barely breathe. It took a lot of effort to get any words out. “I-it c-c-calms m-m-me d-d-do-do..” he sighs in defeat. He can’t do anything right, can he? 

Klaus understands what’s wrong. “It’s okay, I get it, I’ll just rant about some random bullshit and my life problems. I need someone to talk to anyway so it’ll be a win-win situation!”

Klaus starts rambling about some people he met at the rehab centre, occasionally looking at Ben for new things to talk about. Diego visibly calms down, his breathing evens out and eventually he slumps back against the wooden doors. 

“You-you can s-stop now.” he sighs. “Thanks, Klaus.”  
Klaus beams. “Dude, you’re welcome! Do you want some water, I can get you-” 

“Stop!” Ben interrupts him “Someone’s here, I think it’s Luther and Allison.” 

As on cue they hear Luther shout Diego’s name through the house, asking where he is.


	2. Revelation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus and Diego hide in Klaus' room. Luther comes by and reveals a pretty important thing to Klaus

Klaus and Diego sneak through the long hallways if the mansion. Klaus still knows all the different routes to his room because of the many times he had to get to it without being noticed by Reginald. This time it is easier because it’s just Luther and Allison he has to look out for and they aren’t even searching for him specifically.

Eventually, they get to Klaus’ room. While Klaus closes the door, Diego sits down on Klaus’ bed, looking at the various posters and bright texts on the wall. Klaus watches his brother, he looks tense and his normally great posture is now slumped, like all the energy seeped out of him. His eyes are puffy and red from crying and he can see the tracks the tears left on his face. 

Diego grabs one of the stuffed animals from the bed and starts fretting with it “Th-thanks, Klaus.” He doesn’t look up from his hands. 

“Dude, no problemo! I know what it’s like to feel down, I’m not gonna let you go through that alone. I mean I always have Ben…” Klaus looks at Ben and gives him a sweet smile, which he returns. “You can always come to me for comfort!” He exclaims.

Diego laughs humorlessly “B-be-believe me, you won-you won’t want to h-help m-me once you kn-know what I did.” 

Klaus looks at him confused, then looks at Ben, who shrugs. “What do you mean De? I mean it can’t be that ba-” 

A loud knocking interrupts him mid-speech. “Klaus? Are you in here?” 

Diego jumps up the moment he hears Luther’s voice come through the door and Klaus pushes him against the wall next to the door. When he is sure Diego won’t be able to be seen from the doorway, he opens the door slightly to be met by Luther and Allison, who both have similar expressions of sadness and concern on their faces.  
“Luther, Allison! Long time no see! To what do I owe this visit?” He asks with his fake cheerful voice.

Luther rolls his eyes. “We just saw you this morning, but okay. Have you seen Diego? We can’t find him and we have to tell him something important.” 

Allison nods “Yeah, it’s about Grace…” 

Klaus freezes, Diego won’t be able to handle bad news about Grace in the state that he is in now. “What about her?”

Luther and Allison eye each other. “Well, how do I say this…” Allison starts.

“She’s dead, Klaus. Her arm was ripped open, we think those people did it.” Klaus’ eyes widen.

Allison punches him in the arm and glares at him “Nice one, Luther” 

“What? We had to tell him some way.” 

Klaus watches the exchange in horror. How can they be so casual about this? He looks at Diego, who has paled slightly and looks like he could collapse any moment. He looks back at Allison and Luther. “I don’t know where he is, sorry.” he closes the door in a hurry.  
His mind is racing. Mom, dead. He can’t believe it. Through all the years she had cared for them she hadn’t aged a day. It seemed surreal that she could die at all.  
Had Diego known that already? Klaus had expected him to have more of a reaction, but maybe he was in shock or something.

Ben snaps his fingers in front of his face. “Hello? Earth to Klaus? Maybe you should ask Diego what happened, just an idea.”

Klaus snaps out of it, he needs to help Diego. He can think about Grace another time. “Hey, are you okay?” he asks Diego, “Did you know about this already?” 

Diego locks eyes with Klaus. “I-I’m so-sorry!” He chokes out.

Klaus looks at Ben in confusion, but he shrugs. “What are you sorry for?” 

Tears start streaming down his brother’s face, “I-it’s my f-f-fau-fault! I-i k-k-kill-killed her, I ri-ripped her ap-apart! I’m a-a-a horrible per-person, Kl-Klaus!” 

Ben gasps, Klaus has a million thoughts swarming through his head and emotions flickering across his face. Disbelief. Anger. Sadness. Pity. He quickly realises that Diego must beat himself up about it already, he doesn’t need someone else to do that too. He decides to help him through it. Now he knows what the reason for his little breakdown was, he knows he can help him better.  
“Shush De, if you hadn’t done it Luther would have, and probably in a less peaceful way than you did.” He says gently, slowly approaching Diego. “She loved you and would have wanted you to be the one to turn her off, if someone had to do it.” 

Diego offers him a watery smile. Ben lays his hand on Klaus’ shoulder, tears streaming down his face. He had loved Grace too, maybe not as much as Diego had loved her, but he had always had a certain level of respect for her, considering the fact that she practically raised 7 superhero kids as a robot. She always cleaned him up after their missions because he would be too much in shock to be able to do anything. 

“Give him one of these bone-crushing hugs, please. He really needs one of those right now.” He suggests. 

Klaus looks at Ben sadly, remembering all those times where Ben had tried to hug him, but would just phase through him. “Can I hug you?” Diego looks at him and nods. Klaus leaps forward and embraces Diego, carefully at first, but he squeezes harder once he is sure his still crying brother is comfortable with the physical contact. 

Diego is surprised by the action, but also grateful for the much-needed comfort. What Klaus said to him made him feel a little less broken inside. He didn’t quite feel that incredible sadness anymore, but he can’t help the sobs still escaping from him. 

For the second time that day, Diego breaks down in his brother’s arms, but this time with Klaus staying quiet while Diego rambles, explaining why he did it. 

“She- she was ju-just so con-confused y-you know,” he chokes out “She di-didn’t even n-no-notice the at-attack.” 

Klaus can only just understand what Diego is saying through the wet sobs, occasional hiccups and the ever-present stutter.

Ben stands next to them, still crying, but nodding along to everything Diego says, not uttering a word. 

After a little while, Diego quietly sits down and stops crying. He is just extremely tired

Klaus starts to untangle himself from the hug, but Diego stops him, “No, not yet.” he mumbles into his shoulder.

Klaus laughs contently. It has been a while since he’s hugged anyone like that. Diego has been kind of closed off from a young age and wasn’t comfortable showing affection openly, While Klaus loved to show affection by laughing, hugging, kissing even.

After a minute or two Diego falls asleep. Klaus can feel his breathing evening out, and he supports his brother’s muscular body as it slumps completely against his torso.

Suddenly Ben speaks up. “Klaus, as much as I love seeing my two favourite brothers hugging each other, our favourite bulldozer is coming.” 

Klaus looks up, confused “...What?” 

Ben sighs “Luther, Luther he’s-”

The door swings open to reveal a disgruntled Luther and an annoyed Allison.

“Klaus, are you sure you haven’t seen-” Luther locks eyes with Klaus, who is still hugging Diego, who is slowly waking up because of Luther’s loud voice. Klaus pats his brother’s hair. “Shhh, it’s just ol’ monkey man, who will leave right now without asking any questions, right Luther?” 

“Errr…” Luther stays by the doorway, not sure what to do before Allison grabs his arm and gestures to follow her. Klaus nods at her gratefully, before resuming lulling Diego back to sleep, and eventually, he falls asleep himself. 

If you didn’t know the circumstances you would think It was just two regular brothers hugging, asleep, while the other stood guard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, thank you Satan! I really love how you edit my things. Also, thank you Sarka and Laerke! The brainstorming session was super useful and I got a lot of ideas from that. 
> 
> This will be the last chapter of this fic because I didn't know what I could add to this.
> 
> Comment down below what you thought of it!

**Author's Note:**

> I just want to give credits to my beta, the one and only, SATAN(Twinings-Peppermint, Y'all should read some of their fics.). Thank you so much mate.  
> Also Sarka, I'm just happy that you wanted to read it. 
> 
> This is my first fic btw, feel free to comment!


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